This Writer Made $7,000 from a Single Article by Making Use of a Timely News Hook
Her example shows how powerful news is for your writing success.
Everyone loves news.
It definitely grabs attention.
Especially if it’s a human interest story that includes emotive content.
As you may know, news can be reported in a range of ways.
Let me give you an example from Medium:
A few hours after the Oscars were over, I already saw the first stories popping up in my feed about the Will Smith slap.
As a trained journalist (and professional marketer) I know about the power of timely news hooks.
Still, I decided to not write about this event although it really engaged me emotionally.
Abena Talks did.
She earned a whopping $7,000 with one single story.
Well, she knows how to hook her audience from start to finish.
Apparently, a lot of Medium readers were eager to read Edina’s take on the shocking moment at the Oscars.
How did she hook her audience?
- Her story caters to human interest and generates an emotional connection.
- Her headline has definitely a hook: Will Smith Slapped Chris Rock For His “GI Jane Joke” and What Can This Outburst Teach Us?.
- The headline gives both the facts AND some assessment. It indicates that it’s not a straight news story, but rather, an editorial piece.
- She shares her experience with the Black community and Black Man (what I could not do, for example, because I am not firm with this).
She shares these cruel insights:
Black boys are taught to be “strong” and I can vouch for this, many Black children are raised by the belt.
I can’t speak on parenting in modern Black homes however, I know that I was raised by the belt, the curtain wire and many other weapons of punishment.
Steal Edina’s process
1 — Each day Edina searches through Google News, Feedly, Twitter, and other social platforms to check for trending news topics.
2 — She picks the two most popular topics and comes up with multiple story ideas.
3 — She places all the story ideas in a spreadsheet and decides on the most suitable platforms.
4 — She crafts the content and publishes all the pieces on the same day
5 — She monetizes some of the content using affiliate links
6 — Some platforms already have in-built monetization such as the Medium Partner Program and Hubpages Partner Program.
7 — She also publishes on my blogs and on YouTube.
8 — She shares the content on Twitter, Flipboard, and Pinterest.
Hot topics to write about right now
Here are 4 hot topics you can write about plus Top Writer tags that could make you a Top Writer — besides #News:
1 — Elon Musk + Twitter
= use the Medium tag #Technology + #Social Media + #InternetofThings
2 — Taylor Swift + Out of the Woods / new movie Amsterdam
= use the Medium tag #Society + #Celebrity + #Movies
3 — Kim Kardashian + Damon Thomas
= use the Medium tag #Society + #Celebrity
4 — American football + different football players
= use the Medium tag #Sports + #Celebrity + #Culture
Here’s the full list of Top Writer tags:
Final Takeaways
Edina had significant monetary gain from one trending topic.
Her lessons learned:
…trending topics help to boost my income.
The key to making money with trending topics is to create content every single day.
👉Why not join Medium? You’ll get unlimited access to all my articles and thousands of other writers. If you sign up using my link, I’ll earn a tiny commission.👈
